YeeeeeHaaaaa!!!

Later the same day as Crazy Woman Canyon, they were having a Pig Wrestling Championship and a Ranch Rodeo at the local Fairgrounds.

Once again, Bev and Paul (owners of Bighorn Mtns Campground) gave us a PILE of information about the area and part of that was the wrestling, so we decided we had to see it at least once in our lifetime.

The entire program was put together to support a local Gymnastic Group that trained
with a young gymnast from Australia. They gave a short performance before the wrestling began. Boy do I wish I was EVER that flexible.

If you've never seen pig wrestling before, plan on a lot of loud squealing from the pig, cuz they want you to think they're being killed at least. Of course, that's just before they throw 3 people into the mud.

Sooner or later some of the pigs were actually defeated and lifted into a 55 gallon drum lined with padding. In some ways it was really cool to watch, but at times I thought the pigs were getting beat up.

We left a little before they were finished, but it was definitely an experience.

It's an experience I doubt we'll do again.

On to the Escapade in Gillette,WY.

ttfn

Paul

actual post 7/9/08

Crazy Woman Canyon

Yep, it's true.

One of the highlights of the Buffalo area is a really cool scenic drive called Crazy Woman Canyon.

I did a little bit of research and it seems there are at least three different theories about where the name came from and they all decided there was a woman who lived near the canyon who basically went nuts after living alone for a long time.

It only took us about 3 hours to drive the canyon and loop back to Bighorn Campground, so it was an easy day, but well worth the drive.

Thanks Bev and Paul for the info.

Enjoy

Hope you enjoyed the pictures, and FYI the drive went from about 5000-ft to 7800-ft. We went UP the road in case we needed to turn around, but the elevation had minimal effect on my breathing.

Next up, PIGS. hee hee

ttfn

Paul

Actual post 7/7/08

Just another day

Yesterday around noontime, we decided to go into Buffalo to check out the town and have some lunch. Buffalo has an old fashioned Soda Fountain on their National Register main street. That's where we had lunch. It was really very cool to see.

After lunch, we rode around town a little bit and then headed back toward the park.
I changed my mind on the way, and kept on driving up into the mountains just west of the park. (imagine me changing my mind - hee hee)

Was reminded that we were entering Bighorn National Forest and took a few pictures, but didn't go very far into the mountains. (about 10 miles) I did Google Earth when we got back to find out that we had gone to about 7500 ft elevation on our ride.
The differences in all the mountains we've seen is amazing. Every time we go into a new Range, we both comment on how different and how alike they are.

The Western Mountains all have a lot more volcanic remnants, while the Eastern Mountains seem to be more Glacial formations. IMHO

Well, nothing much to tell ya, so ttfn.

Paul

Big Horn Mountains Campground

Hot dang, this thing is current (sorta).

Our site in the park is decent, and we're closest to the Office/Laundry/Showers of all the sites in here.

The Office/Laundry

Our site from the office

Oh yeah, so I don't forget it, you can also see the owners lawnmowers hard at work in the office picture. Yep, mules. The owners do mow, but with the size of the park they move the mules around to help out and save money on hay at the same time. Kinda cool.

This place is really a couple miles from Buffalo, and out in the "country", so we have some very cool company every day.

Pronghorn Antelope

Whitetail Deer

These two pictures were taken Tuesday during the day. For whatever reason, the Pronghorns (in the field next door) stay on the East side of the park, and the deer stay to the West side of the park. hmmmm - social separation or what?

Doe near dusk

Buck still has velvet

Took these two pictures yesterday at dusk from the door of the motorhome.

They're less than 50 yards from the rig.

Kinda relaxing, especially when I remember hunting them not too many years ago.
(lots easier letting them come to me) hehe

ttfn

Paul

Tongue River Canyon

We'd been at the Park in Dayton for a couple of days and got the itch to do something, so we decided to take a ride and see Tongue River Canyon. We had a little information from the park about it and I checked it out online, so thought it would be a worthwhile ride.

Unfortunately, I didn't look at a map before we took off, so we drove for a few miles up along the mountains before turning around to get back to the river.

Kind of a nice view from the mountains about 5 miles from the park.

After our drive in the wrong direction, we saw a sign along the main street in town that pointed us to the Canyon Road. It wasn't more than 200 yards from the park entrance. duuuuuhhhh

We were going slowly up the dirt road leading to the canyon and I caught a glimpse of movement, and quickly stopped to get these shots.

Shortly after the deer, I noticed the big nests on the tops of these trees and stopped to take a closer look, and a couple of pictures. cool huh!!

Finally we got to the Canyon itself and were very pleasantly surprised with what we found. It's only a 5 mile drive from the main road (by our park) to the end of the Tongue Canyon River Road, but a pretty nice one.

It was really a nice leisurely drive and our last adventure at this park.

Because we didn't have full hook-ups and we really like having them, we decided to leave a couple days early and move to another park in Buffalo, WY about 50 miles away.

The new park is Big Horn Mountain Campground, another older park, but in much better condition, so we will stay here until the 23rd, when we go to Gillette for the Escapade.

ttfn

Paul

posted 6/18/08

Not so bad

As we were coming into Wyoming, I'd been driving just long enough that I took a break at the first rest area and it happened to be right at the border. Cool sign.

We didn't have far to go before we got off the Interstate and headed for Dayton and our "home" for the next week or so. Dayton has a population under 700 and really not much to it, but it's in the right area, so we'll deal with it.

I mentioned in the last post that we had to settle for a water and electric site at the Foothills Campground, because of some water problems on their FHU sites.

As it turned out, it was really a pretty nice site for us, and would have been great if it was full hook-up. Oh well, it goes with the territory.

We were by ourselves except for a few tent campers who were in for overnights. It was pretty secluded with trees, grass, and the Tongue River running right along the edge of the campground, about 100-ft from us. The rest of the campground was basically on the other side of the trees from us.

We periodically saw people rafting or kayaking down past the park. It was running rapidly, and it didn't take long for them to whiz on down the river.

The park next door was busy everyday and seemed to be very well maintained. Since we are trying to see some unique things where we go, the next post will be about a little known drive that starts about 200 yards from the park.

ttfn

Paul

posted 6/18/08

Headin East...sorta

Our goal for the last couple of weeks has been to get within striking distance of Gillette,Wyoming for the upcoming Escapade. We are going to be on Staff, working on the parking crew, so we need to be there before most anyone else even shows up.

We left Aspen Acres and headed toward Reed Point, Montana for Old West RV Park. It was about a 200 mile drive, and relatively smooth going. We traveled North on US-191 from West Yellowstone to Bozeman, then East on I-90.

Along the road.

After we got through Bozeman, we had to go over a section of the Rocky Mountains on I-90, and with the higher elevation (7500-ft) and the storm in the area, we got to drive through SNOW again. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

We got to Old West (another Passport America Park) around 3PM amid 30 mph winds, gusting to as high as 60mph. Fortunately we had a couple of rigs parked to our windward side, so it broke it up a little. It was still an interesting night, rocking and rolling. ;-)

The park is decent, clean and has some really nice people running it. Not a long term stay place, but great if you're traveling through. I had a pull-through, full-hook-up site that was long enough for our rig, tow dolly, and car without unhooking anything. Those sites make me happy. *grin*

The next day we headed for our destination park in Dayton,WY. On the way we (Connie) took a few pictures of the landscape and sky. We chased clear skies across Montana.

See the light at the end of the tunnel? hehe

Not sure where this guy was going, but it was interesting to see.

Once again, we got to our destination park mid-afternoon and were hooked up to a water and electric site very quickly. It seems that flooding had caused some electric problems in their full hook-up sites. They hoped to get it fixed in a couple of days.

The park is small, and old, and unfortunately not really well taken care of, but it has grassy sites, is along the Tongue River, and has the town park right next door, so all is not lost.

More about Dayton in the next post.

ttfn

Paul

Actually posted 6/17/08

More from Idaho

Our site at Aspen Acres was really pretty nice and would have been awesome if we had warmer and dryer weather.

Since the weather was pretty lousy (chilly and wet) most of the time we've been in Idaho, we didn't do much except the Yellowstone trip.

One other attraction we were told about was the Mesa Falls Scenic Drive. It was another loop drive that was about 50 miles of driving, and started right in Ashton.

It was another cool day, but no rain, so we hopped in the car and planned for the better part of an afternoon, and timing was great.

We thought it was worth the drive, whatcha think?


This is our last post from Idaho, so as you can see, there really is more than just potatoes here. hee hee

ttfn

Paul

actually posted 6/17/08

Old Faithful is..well, FFFaithful!!

I'd been keeping a close eye on the weather trying to get the best day possible for a trip to Yellowstone, America's first National Park.

With the average elevation in the park at over 7,500-ft, I knew the temperature could be an issue.

We (I) decided to take a stab at the trip when the forecast said a 30% chance of rain or snow, but the forecast for Ashton was a high of 61F for the day, so I thought we'd be ok. oops, my bad

The ride from Ashton wasn't bad (just over an hour) but we really didn't see anything special.

Once in the Park, we came upon an Eagle Management area where we weren't allowed to stop, but they had barricades close enough that I could get a shot of the nest. If you look real close at the top-center of the nest, you can see the baby eagle's head.

It was a great day at Yellowstone, and one thing I can tell you is it definitely can snow in June at Yellowstone. We stood in about 3/4" of snow on the ground, while waiting as it snowed for Old Faithful to spout.

I froze my butt off waiting, but it really was an impressive sight, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone if you're even remotely close.

Bison, Elk, Eagles, birds n things. A pretty great day, even with frozen feet and overcast skies.

Enjoy the pics.

Elk along the road.
	Our first bison
	Hot springs steaming
Park help shoveling
Waiting for Old Faithful	Thar she blows
	Road blockers
On our way back to Ashton

Another National Park, that truly has earned it's stripes.

ttfn

Paul

actually posted 6/16/08

Idaho - more than potatoes?

When we left Nephi, we had looked at a number of RV parks in Eastern Idaho, and had decided on Aspen Acres RV park in Ashton.

Ashton put us about 70 miles from Yellowstone and was at about 5000 ft of elevation, so we felt pretty comfortable with the location, and thought the elevation would be a good test.

Our biggest question was caused by a massive cold front coming into the Northwest. I already know that cold bothers my breathing a bunch, so it concerned us both, especially being at the higher elevation.

But, the price was right at another Camp Club USA park. In case you didn't already guess it, our membership has already more than paid for itself, and we only joined a couple of weeks ago.
(Our cost was $39.95 and it's saved us $130 at just 3 parks.)

Anyway, the ride from Nephi to Ashton was about 5-1/2 hours, so we got an early start (9-ish) and got to the park about 4 pm after stopping to fill the rig in Utah. (about 20 cents cheaper)


All in all, a pretty uneventful day with some scenery we haven't seen for a long time. Fields of green and farm country galore.
Oh yeah, and a reminder that we were still close to the mountains and needed to think about the cold.

Aspen Acres is in the middle of farm country, and also incorporates a small public golf course, so if the weather was a little warmer and dryer, we might have actually tried to play a round.

We haven't played golf since we started traveling, but maybe we can start thinking about playing soon. It would be nice.

Well, next up will be Yellowstone.

ttfn

Paul

actually posted 6/12/08

Salt Lake and a City ;-)

After our ride Saturday, I had some things to do on the motor home, so we really stayed around the park all day Sunday while I played Mr. Fixit. hehe

Monday, we decided to take a ride to Salt lake City and out to the Lake itself. I wanted to be sure we had enough time for the City, so we did the Lake part first.

Connie managed to put her feet in Salt lake at the State Marina. The water level was very low, so we didn't walk out to the beach, as it was about 1/4 mile to the water.

After the lake we went into Salt Lake City to see Temple Square, a full block of buildings in downtown Salt lake City, all part of the Mormon Church.

The pictures really tell it all. Simply awesome.

Waving to the water gods	Dipping her toes
The Entrance	Mormon Temple
The Tabernacle	Inside the Tabernacle
Assembly Hall	Assembly Hall Interior
Brigham Young's House	Brigham Young's House
Brigham Young's House	A Catholic Church

We sat through a demonstration in the Tabernacle. They don't need or use microphones in the building. We sat in the back row from the stage (I think 80 ft) and heard a young lady drop three straight pins and a nail. Really amazing acoustics.

When we left Temple Square, we just drove around a little to see more or the City. That's where the picture of the Catholic Church came from. The city is remarkably clean and well maintained.

It was a sorta long day, cuz it was about 70 miles to Salt Lake City from our park in Nephi, but well worth the trip.

ttfn

Paul

Actually posted 6/11/08